Despite their low rate of fire, Adepts can punch a hole through Lightly-armored targets. In addition, they can project a Shade of themselves, and teleport to a new location after a brief timer finishes (shown on the unit/s) - ideal for scouting (ability can be cancelled to distract the enemy) or to bypass enemy defenses (ideally with Resonating Glaives completed).

Two defining features of developed armies in Starcraft are either they are extremely mobile but lacking power or powerful with less mobility. Two Stargate units the Phoenix and Oracle can harass where Adepts cannot, all three combined are even capable of defending almost all threats from both Terran and Zerg from the early to mid game. See Versus Protoss for why Adepts are not common there.

Adepts have no anti-air attack and are commonly produced alongside Stargate units like a few Oracles and many Phoenix. Phoenixes can control the opponent's air units, and their harassment, while also having the Graviton Beam ability to remove Armored units into the air and leave the Light units to be cleared up by the Adept's bonus damage. Most common against Zerg and Terran.

Combos well with a Warp Prism or Oracles in the early game to be able to pressure and harass two locations at the same time. A Warp Prism also gives an early Warpgate research timing for Adepts if the opponent has teched too hard or too greedy.

Like the Stalker, Adepts can combo with Sentry's Forcefield ability for defense against Ground unit rushes. You can defend off of Gateways alone, depending on the size of the ramp you wish to defend. This effect is enhanced when Warpgate research is finished and was used in Wings of Liberty against a Stalker-based 4 Warpgate Rush to buy time for Immortals.

After Adept (1) has been made to scout the opponent's opening, usually Gateway (2) with a few Sentries to guard the ramp, it is more favored to go into mass Zealot with enough Sentries to stop the enemy from kiting the Zealots before they have Charge researched.

Adepts can use the Psionic Shadows to spot the high ground against a Terran Supply DepotWall-In. Especially strong against a Reaper or Reactor opening, when combo'ed with a proxy Pylon and Mothership Core as an easy and early cheese/pressure. (As of Patch 4.0.0, the Mothership Core has been removed from multiplayer)

When combined with an early wall-in, Adepts are effective at preventing early Zergling rushes due to their effectiveness against light armored units. Can also be effective against Hydralisks later in the game when used with Colossi.